INCLEMENT WINTER WEATHER, BUT THE WONDERFUL, WARM MISSIONARY WORK ROLLS FORWARD

Dear Family and Friends,
It has been a few months since we last posted on our Mission Blog. It just seems that there is so much to do that this doesn't get a very high priority. Occasionally we raise our focus to other areas, such as the Blog, and wonder where the time has gone. Rather than bore you with a "book of details", we are going to mainly post quite a few pictures of "happenings" in our lives, over the past few months, with a few comments on each. Hopefully that will make it a little more palatable to those who venture into our missionary world, here in the New Hampshire Manchester Mission.

We continue to be assigned to the Portland, ME area (and hopefully will be for the entirety of our mission - Dec. 2017). But, we do get around a lot of Maine and a little bit of New Hampshire, as we inspect 22 Missionary apartments and Cars, once every 6 weeks. This is something we weren't so thrilled about doing, when we first found out we had such an assignment. However, it has turned out to be one of our most enjoyable assigned support service opportunities. We love all these missionaries that we work with, and become better acquainted as we do these inspections.

We have also had an opportunity to work with the Auburn/Lewiston French speaking Elders. Auburn/Lewiston is about 1 hour away from Portland. Our mission President, has asked us to assist in the work with the Africans there, as much as we can.

The work amongst these precious African, Christ centered people, is moving quickly ahead. The Lord is hastening His work amongst his beloved African people. We are having abundant gospel teaching opportunities. We have had the opportunity to teach far more French gospel discussions, in our 1st 10 months here, than during my entire 2 1/2 years in France, Belgium and Luxembourg. Our biggest challenge is to have adequate local resources to appropriately integrate them into our church and economic society. Those in Portland are primarily "seekers of asylum". In Auburn/Lewiston, they are more often "refugees". But, they are ALL God's children and are delightful. We have learned to love and appreciate them so very much.

So, here are some pictorial "highlights" of our mission, since the end of October, 2016:

Last vestiges of a BEAUTIFUL Fall

One of the many lighthouses in Maine ... not a big one, but quite well known in Portland, with a large Park area associated with it.

In November 2016, the building our apartment was in(lower floor) was sold. Senior couples had lived here for a few years. We were very concerned about finding another apartment that would suit our needs. We needed a large enough area for "gatherings" in our home; It had to be on the ground level (so many stairs here). It had to be a 2 bedroom. It had to be relatively close to our work area. It had to be reasonable in cost, in a market with a huge shortage of apartments. We did a lot of praying and searching ... then, we found the following:

This is our new apartment. It is on the 1st level; It is larger than our previous apartment and MORE conducive for "gatherings"; Closer to the areas where we spend most of our time; Reasonably priced; The owners live above us (wonderful landlords). Again ... cast our eyes towards heaven and express humble gratitude. We feel so blessed.

Zone Conference lunch, with some wonderful missionaries. We all love Zone Conferences ... especially the missionaries.

Our Mission President and his wife, Pres. & Sis Blair, the 2 mission office couples (Elder & Sister Adams and Elder & Sister Allen) and 4 Sister Missionaries

Portland Ward Thanksgiving Dinner. Sitting to the right of Sister Aldridge is Cindy Coombs. To Cindy's right is her husband, a member of the Ward since the Saturday we arrived in June 2016. He had been a Methodist minister for 23 years. Cindy was not a member, but we have developed a close friendship with them and their daughter. Cindy had developed great respect for the church and took her 1st official missionary lesson the first part of February. A week later, she suffered a massive stroke and died. She is a wonderful lady. It has been really hard on Glenn and their daughter. Their daughter tells Glenn that he did not have the understanding of the gospel, as he does now, she is not sure how he could have made it through this very difficult situation. They were very close. We continue to meet with him, either at our house, or his for dinner and gospel discussion. His daughter is going to continue taking the missionary discussions. Glen and she look forward, to when he is ordained an Elder and she is baptized, to go through the Boston Temple and do her temple work and for them all to be sealed as an eternal family. They are a very close family. What a blessing it has been to have developed an eternal friendship with them.

Another picture of Sister Aldridge, Cindy, her daughter and fiance and Glenn in the background. In the foreground are some of our dinner African friends and Members.

Sister Aldridge and I had as many Africans who could come, over to our home on Thanksgiving Day. We focused on those that did not have an invitation elsewhere. We had a little over a dozen who joined us. We had a wonderful time.

Another picture of our Thanksgiving Dinner.

Sister Aldridge (especially) loves Mexican food. We have been on a quest ... this is Margaritas Mexican Restaurant ... OK, but it is a chain restaurant with only Caucasian workers. Not our favorite. But, we have found a favorite ... See below. All workers are Hispanic. We have become friends with the owner and most of the staff.

Our apartment, all decked out for Christmas :-)

Joining in with District & Zone Elders and Sisters to sing Christmas Carols in the Portland Mall. Many stopped to listen and look at our #LightTheWorld display.

1st BIG snow storm. Dressed in my abominable snowman outfit. 

Street view of snow storm remnants

Looking at car and our home from across the street ... cold weather and dry snow.

Our French speaking contingent of Portland Elders. Sister Aldridge adds a very nice and effective touch of "love" to all teachings and gatherings.

"Christmas season" Zone Conference, with our beloved Elder and Sister LeCheminant. They are from Mesa, AZ and cover the Northeastern part of Maine. We try to coordinate meeting for lunch, every couple of months or so, while we are both out doing apartment/car inspections. We have such respect and love for them.

Zone Conference Christmas gathering: All of President and Sister Blair's children (except 1 son & his wife). They had arranged to be with the Blair's during Christmas time. As I have probably previously mentioned, Sister Blair is the oldest grandchild of President and Sister Hinckley.

President Blair teaching and inspiring we missionaries at the Christmas season Zone Conference.

At some point in time, all but one Elder in this photo are French speaking Missionaries and have served with us here in Portland, ME. 3 are now in Auburn/Lewiston, and we still have the opportunity to teach with them from time to time.

Celebrating Sister Aldridge's birthday, Christmas Eve.

Celebrating Sister Aldridge's 40th? birthday, with a couple of Sisters and Elders from our District. She wanted Coconut Cream pie, rather than cake. It was an enjoyable Christmas Eve, celebrating Christ's birth and her birthday

This is a picture of a wonderful Brother from Africa, who has been given a gift of money(for Christmas) to go toward bringing 3 of his children to the US, now that he has been granted Asylum (it took over 6 years). They are still going through all the legal immigration processes to join him. We hope that will come to fruition in about a month. His wife will not be able to come, because they had adopted 5 children who were orphans. She will need to stay to continue raising them. Only direct offspring are allowed to come join someone who has been granted asylum. The hardships they all have to face are just difficult to comprehend ... in fact, we don't and can't. We have been quite engaged in support activities with this good brother, since our arrival.

The next set of pictures are of our Christmas dinner for all the Africans who could come, and weren't invited to a member's home. We had 22 people, including Sister Aldridge and I. These people are deeply religious and are such a delight to be with. This first picture is a table for the youth/children. They had a wonderful time together, and begged their parents to let them stay longer, when it was time for them to leave. Preparing for and feeding 22 people, just the 2 of us, was a herculean endeavor. But, we had a wonderful time and spent time together, after dinner, talking about the Savior, His birth and mission and His importance to us.

More pictures of Christmas Dinner

More Pics of Christmas Dinner

More pictures of Christmas Dinner

More pics of Christmas Dinner

Another Snow storm on December 30th. Takes a lot of shoveling to go somewhere.

More 12/30/16 digging the car out of the snow.

Our street 12/30/16, after the snow plow had come through.

Sister Aldridge and I, celebrating New Years Day, by ourselves. It is great! The prime-rib Sister Aldridge cooked was more than wonderful ... the whole meal was delicious. She has cooked more here than she has in many years. She claims she will never cook another meal, when we return home ... is that a threat, a veiled threat I need to start worrying about?? 

Things can get pretty wild out here! I had taken one of our African members to a local Cabela's sports store to buy them cleats for he and his wife's shoes. She is expecting a baby and fell once on the ice, causing some difficulties.

Another African comes into the church through baptism. A very spiritual man and well versed in the gospel. He has already been to the Boston Temple to do baptisms for the dead.

February Zone Conference lunch line. The two Sisters on the left, Sister Hoopes and Davis were in our District. Sister Hoopes just returned home on the previous Transfer. The other Sisters are all in the areas where we inspect apartments and cars.

The two Elders standing behind us were the Assistants to the President. The Sister standing to the far right was Sister Davies and was a special assistant to the President to help train other Sister Training Leaders. The other sister was being trained, and, Sister Weidrick, is now in our District. The couple sitting to our right is a Mission Office couple, Elder and Sister Allen.

Another snow storm.

A wonderful African couple having just entered Christ's church through baptism. They are such a precious couple. Both highly educated in their African country. She is expecting their 1st child.

This is the same couple with another African sister, standing in the middle who is also expecting her and her husband's 1st child as well. The sister in the middle, and her husband, came to church for the 1st time, the first Sunday we were in Portland. It has been our honor, privilege and blessing to accompany them through the entire conversion process.  They entered the waters of baptism in September. They are delightful and forever friends.

Whoa! Do I really want to go out there?

Can hardly force my way through the snow to the street to walk to get my car. When it snows a lot, the City of Portland declares a "Snow Ban Day" .... which means you cannot leave your car on the street over night. This was one of those times. You have to have the car off the street prior to 10pm and out of the public parking lot (which was about a 20 min. walk away) before 7am the next morning. The temperature was subzero, with some wind. I had to really bundle up, heavy coat, insulated snow boots, ice cleats mounted on the bottoms, insulated gloves and a scarf wrapped around my face. The next few pictures show the process of digging our car out, the next morning.

Digging out

One of our African friends and members. Just today, we took him over to meet with someone at Southern Maine Community College Continuing Education to try to get him into training that will qualify him to be certified in an area where skills are in demand. 

Another African friend and member

Another African friend and member

Another African friend and member. We go to SMCC with her tomorrow.

Our dear friends, spoken of above. Her baby is due in just a couple of months. They are so excited ... and so are we. Notice the Scouting logo on his shirt. He was in a leadership position of scouting for his African country, before having to come to the US for protection.

In the middle, President and Sister Hawks, counselor in Mission Presidency. He lives in a Ward not to far from Portland, and speaks French. The others at the table are all Sisters who are either in our District, or we meet with them as we do apartment and car inspections. In the far left background, you catch a glimpse of Sister Aldridge apparently telling Elder Aldridge he cannot go back to the lunch table for seconds ... I guess? I am assuming that, since it does look like it is quite serious ;-).

Hired a big Van and took all of these recent African converts and their missionaries to the Boston Temple for the 1st time to do baptisms and confirmations. We had a wonderful day.

Sister Aldridge and I made a big push to get as many African members and friends out to attend April, Sunday General Conference at the Church. We had mailed letters, in French, and texted reminders. We also had to make multiple trips to get them all there. This is the session being broadcast in French in the Relief Society Room.

We had a very nice pot luck lunch for them, between the Sunday sessions of General Conference. Sister Aldridge prepared and brought a lot of food. It was well attended, and seemed to be very much appreciated. But, Sister Aldridge and I needed Monday to try to recover  our physical and mental health. It was well worth it.

We are so grateful for our opportunity to serve. We are so grateful that we have been blessed with sustaining health and energy to do what we have done. The field is so ready to be harvested ... and the laborers and resources are so relatively few, compared to the overwhelming needs. We so appreciate all we have the opportunity to serve with. We are most appreciative of all of your sustaining thoughts and prayers. 
With our love and appreciation,
Elder and Sister Aldridge